The kids know these rooms.They’ve stayed here before, but everything feels different tonight.Tense.Fragile.Lily won’t stop crying until Evangeline lies down next to her.Sophie won’t sleep unless the bathroom light stays on and the closet door stays open.Mason keeps asking questions I can’t fully answer.
“What if he comes back again?”
“We’ve got eyes on every entrance,” I say.“You’re safe.”
It’s half a lie, but that’s all I’ve got.This is the safest place we could be and yet it’s still not safe enough.
By the time the last door clicks shut, the hallway is quiet.Just the soft hum of the vents and the muffled sound of sleep behind the walls.
I lean back against the plaster, arms folded, head tilted back.
It’s nearly three in the morning.
And I still feel like I’m waiting for the next blow to land.
The place is quiet.But I’m not.
Evangeline finds me like that, her steps soft as she walks down the hall.She stops beside me then slides down until she’s sitting on the floor, knees tucked up.
“I keep thinking about the flash,” she murmurs.“It’s burned into my head.”
“Same,” I admit.
She doesn’t ask the questions we’re both thinking.Likehow did they get that close without tripping the alarm?How’d they know which window to watch?Because there’s only one answer that fits, and neither of us is ready to say it.
So instead, we sit there.Breathing the same air.Guarding the same children.Waiting.
"You should try to sleep," she says softly.
"Can't.Not until I know they're safe."
"They are safe.We're in the most secure building in Boston, surrounded by armed men who'd die before letting anything happen to those kids."
"And yet someone still got close enough to take pictures of us."
The reminder makes her face pale again."How did he find us?"she whispers.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out."I pull out my phone, opening files and documents, looking for patterns I might have missed.
"What are those?"
"Everything we've gathered on Morrison.Financial records, communication logs, the intelligence he bought from Ivy."
Evangeline leans closer, studying the screen."These payments to Ivy stopped five years ago."
"When she died.But Morrison's operation didn't stop.It expanded."
"Because he already had what he needed."
"Names, locations, security protocols for multiple clubs.Including ours."
The implications settle over us like a weight.Morrison isn't just some spurned ex-boyfriend with money and connections.He's been planning this for years, using stolen intelligence to build his empire, waiting for the right moment to strike.
"What do we do?"Evangeline asks.
Before I can answer, my phone buzzes with a text from Rogue.
Rogue: Got something.Morrison's been making calls to Shadow Hawks leadership.Looks like he's trying to broker some kind of deal.
